


methods of calmness, grounding, and protection

by teaearlgreyhot



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, magic is gay all the time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:13:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaearlgreyhot/pseuds/teaearlgreyhot
Summary: Fred dreams of Pylea, Willow brings her back to earth.





	methods of calmness, grounding, and protection

**Author's Note:**

> This is a secret santa present for Shelby of womanaction! I hope you like it <3

The nights that Willow noticed Fred sleeping in a cold sweat were becoming few and far between, but it was a full moon, so Willow was prepared. 

Fred, the frantic genius that she was, tended to be the last one to sleep. She always woke Willow up, crawling into bed in the young hours of the morning, curling against Willow, nestling her head in her shoulder. Willow couldn’t bring herself to mind. 

Full moons were different. Willow wasn’t sure if Fred noticed the pattern, but Willow would stay up as long as she could, under the pretence of witchy happenings. She wasn’t lying, not technically. Those were the best nights to charge tarot cards, and she did feel Gaia pulling in closer as the moon swelled. In her ideal world, Willow would rather wake up early and start the day with the earth than to stay up until Fred’s breath had evened out. But in an ideal world, Fred wouldn’t dream of caves, violence, and a grumbling stomach. 

The minute Fred began tossing and turning, Willow was sitting by her side, one hand clutching a small velvet pouch and the other gently taking Fred’s, interlacing their fingers, squeezing until Fred opened her eyes. Trial and error had taught Willow that this was the best way to take her girlfriend out of a nightmare; nobody held Fred’s hand in Pylea. 

“Lepidolite, for calmness.” Willow said in a soft, even voice, taking a smooth, cloudy purple stone out of the bag and touching it against Fred’s wrist. Fred stayed quiet, but looked at Willow with her thankful eyes. Willow smiled, rubbing her thumb against the back of Fred’s hand. She took the next stone out, a deep, dirt colored raw stone. “Smoky quartz, for grounding.” She placed it next to the first stone, on Fred’s still wrist. Fred moved her free hand over the gems, covering them. Her thin fingers were shaking, just slightly, when Willow put the last crystal, a smooth, lavender, flat stone under them. “Amethyst, for protection.” 

Thee two girls sat silently for an extended moment before Fred took a long, deep breath. 

“I’ll stop having em’ eventually, you know.” She wasn’t looking at Willow, just at their clasped hands and the crystals. Willow knew that Fred had her doubts about the more abstract parts of magic, the things that didn’t have a direct and traceable cause and effect, but she also knew that the act of comforting would do a lot, even if the crystal’s effects were limited by Fred’s uncertainty. 

“I know.” Willow answered with a reassuring smile, squeezing her girlfriend's hand. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Fred shook her head, then scooted over to give Willow room to lay down where she sat, not letting go of the crystals on her wrist. Willow took the cue and layed down facing Fred. 

“Nah.” Fred rarely talked about her nightmares. She’d talk about Pylea often and causally, but not about the images that haunted her at night. “You could distract me, though. What was your last happy dream?” 

Truthfully, Willow’s most recent happy dream was about the cupcakes they sell at the bakery down the street, but she figured talking about the dream she had before that wasn’t too much of a lie. 

“You and I were taking a walk in the snow. It was all over your hair, and I thought you looked like a fairy. A disney-ish one, not the real kind that get born in people’s ears.” Fred giggled at that. 

“It was snowing in California?” Fred was one to talk- her lighter dreams regularly featured Jedis, but Willow didn’t call her out on it. 

“It happened once!” Willow defended herself with a laugh. “God, this dream is so boring. We were just walking around in the snow, holding hands, and I thought you looked pretty. I don’t know how distracting that is, I can think of another.”

“I like it.” Fred said, and Willow could tell she meant it. She was calmer now- the amethyst or the conversation had done the trick. Willow liked to think it was both. 

“Maybe we could visit someplace snowy. Oh! We could go to the mountains! Shasta is supposed to be really pretty, we could get a little cabin, and prove Giles wrong about sasquatch.”

“I thought sasquatch was in Oregon and Washington, mostly.” 

“We don’t know that there’s just one! There could be different species of sasquatch...es? Sasquatchi? Maybe ‘sasquatch’ is the plural of sasquatch?” Both of the girls laughed, and looked into each other’s eyes as the giggles died down. 

“Thanks.” Fred said after a few moments of silence, quietly but infused with meaning. Willow lightly kissed her forehead. 

“Think you’ll be able to sleep?” Fred didn’t need to thank Willow, but Willow didn’t think that disagreement was worth bringing up again. Fred nodded. Willow would stay up a little while longer, just to make sure. “Good. I love you.” 

“I love you too.” Fred said, smiling, before she closed her eyes once again. 

The crystals had long since fallen off of her wrist, they were now scattered on the bedsheet, and Willow knew that the smoky quartz’s jagged ends might get chipped during the night, but she couldn’t care if she wanted to. Her girlfriend was resting in front of her, hand still in her own, and that was magic enough.


End file.
